


Never Have I Ever

by coslyons



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Gen, Other, bc aroace noah, everyone is kissing but only as friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-08
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-13 13:25:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4523724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coslyons/pseuds/coslyons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a heat wave hit Henrietta, the Raven gang decides to do "normal teenager things". They all play Never Have I Ever at the suggestion of Noah.<br/>Ghosts know things, though, so the game should be interesting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Have I Ever

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a very late birthday gift for mak aka [czernyisdead](http://czernyisdead.tumblr.com/)
> 
> It's based off of [this post](http://punkrocklynch.tumblr.com/post/121560165241/pansexualparrish-waiting-for-the-day-that-the)

Spring break hit Henrietta the same time as a massive heat wave, and the residents of Monmouth manufacturing (and Blue) were traipsing through waist (or chest high, for some) grass in a meadow just outside the outer boundaries of Cabeswater.

Suffice to say, it was very hot.

Like, uncomfortably hot.

A voice piped up from the grass, “Why can’t we do normal teenager things instead of walking around a field and melting?”

The owner of the voice, Blue, straightened from where she had picked a spiky seed out of her socks where it had been stabbing her.

Ronan glanced back at her from where he was wiping the sweat from his face with the bottom of his tank top. “I hate to say it, but I’m with Maggot on this one. This is fucking ridiculous.”

Adam was at the front of their little tag team group trying to use the tarot cards to figure out what exactly Cabeswater was telling them to do today, and Gansey was right behind him.

Adam kept shuffling the cards and reshuffling them. There was a slight pinch between his eyebrows.

“Um, guys? I think this heat wave is affecting Cabeswater, too. It keeps giving me nonsense answers and the Sun keeps coming up. It’s probably a good idea to go back to Monmouth for today.”

Gansey, who wasn’t sweating at all (not even a little bit, what the hell?), was not looking at all wilted by the heat nor deterred by the chaotic feedback from Cabeswater. He perked up at the idea of action and decisively strode back towards the Pig. “Let’s go then!”

****

Blessedly, the air conditioning in Monmouth was going full blast when they arrived. It was glorious.

“So what now?” This voice was coming from Ronan.

Adam looked at Ronan slyly out of the corner of his eye. “We could get our homework done.”

“Fuck off, teacher’s pet.”

Gansey piped up, “We could read through some of these books another time to figure out if there are any clues to lead us to Glendower.”

The sound of three groans nipped that idea in the bud.

Blue rolled her eyes. “Normal teenager things, Gansey. Normal teenager things.”

Noah appeared from the ether, as Noahs are wont to do, and said, “We could play Never Have I Ever.”

Adam visibly startled and whirled around to where Noah was standing.

“Or is that game not something normal teenagers do anymore?”

Blue snorted and said, “Sure, why not? It might still be boring, though. That game only is really interesting if you’re a teenager who does...other teenager things.”

Ronan, not looking up from where he was preening Chainsaw with his fingers, shot back, “If you mean sex, Maggot, say sex.”

Blue threw her hands up. “Fine! I mean sex.”

Adam and Gansey both looked vaguely uncomfortable, so Noah went and sat on the floor and said, “Are we playing or not?”

One by one, the others joined them in a circle. Everyone held up both their hands.

Noah glanced around. “Alright, I’ll go first. Never have I ever liked mangoes.”

Gansey put a finger down, and the game began in earnest.

*****

“Never have I ever been to a public school.”

“Never have I ever ridden a bicycle.”

“Never have I ever been out of the country.”

“Never have I ever drank alcohol.”

 

The game went on and on and on.

Finally it was Blue’s turn and she was struggling for something no one else had said yet. Blue looked speculative for a moment before saying, “Never have I ever had a pet bird.”

Gansey and Ronan both put down a finger, Gansey looking sheepish, Ronan looking murderous.

“Dammit, Maggot! That is targeting and you know it!”

Blue grinned wickedly. “Ha! I got Gansey too, so it doesn’t count as targeting!”

Before the situation could get too out of hand, Noah interrupted. “It’s my turn.”

Pausing, but for dramatic effect and to make sure he had everyone’s attention, he said, in a properly smug voice, “Never have I ever kissed Noah.”

Everyone gave Noah a look of complete and utter betrayal, and then put a finger down. Ronan only had one finger left now, and he certainly told Noah what he thought of this series of events.

*****

The truth is, though, none of them had actually kissed him because of any romantic intent towards him.

 

The first person he had kissed in their friend group, oddly enough, had been Ronan. It had been a while ago, back when Gansey first came to Henrietta and was in the process of moving into Monmouth.

Ronan had come over to Monmouth after a disastrous forced double date with Declan, Declan’s girlfriend, and Declan’s girlfriend’s younger sister. Apparently the girlfriend had to watch her younger sister while their parents were out of town, or something like that. That wasn’t really the important part of the story.

The important part of the story was this: the younger sister had kissed Ronan (his first kiss) and he hadn’t liked it at all. It felt wrong to him, and he didn’t know why.

Noah knew, though. It’s just not his job to tell other people’s secrets outright. He could help them figure out their own secrets though.

So when Ronan was pacing anxiously in the lower floor of Monmouth, Noah offered to kiss him to help him figure things out, as a friend.

He didn’t seriously think Ronan would take him up on it, but sure enough, he did.

It wasn’t anything particularly racy or daring. It was just a quick peck on the lips, completely incongruous with how flushed Ronan became afterwards.

Ronan had sworn him to secrecy about it, a promise that Noah was able to keep easily. It’s not his job to tell other people’s secrets.

 

The second person Noah had kissed was Gansey. This is maybe not surprising, since he had known Ronan and Gansey the longest of the four. (Plus, there was that weird supernatural connection that he and Gansey had because of the ley lines and whatnot.)

He didn’t kiss Gansey because Gansey was having a sexuality crisis. He had kissed Gansey because Gansey had been having a crisis of a different kind.

It had been about two thirty in the morning, and Gansey was in the middle of a panic attack. Or rather, what would have been the middle, had he not been spiralling and hyperventilating and panicking more.

Needless to say, Gansey was not in a good place.

It was one of Noah’s more corporeal days, and so he tried to stop Gansey from hyperventilating by kissing him. He read or saw something somewhere that said you could do that, and he didn’t really have a whole lot of other options.

So he kissed Gansey.

It had worked to bring him out of his panic attack, and Gansey had made him promise never to tell anyone. He didn’t want the others to worry about his panic attacks, he said. Didn’t want to burden them.

 

The third person he kissed was Blue.

It’s impossible to kill someone who’s already dead, he figured, and Blue seemed to want to kiss someone. So he offered to kiss her.

“It’s not like you’re going to kill me. I mean, if you were curious.”

Blue had looked conflicted for a few moments, before saying, “Okay.”

It was so awkward. Blue and him were at that point of friendship where there is absolutely no unresolved or hidden romantic feelings.

Noah cast about for some idea that would make the whole experience more enjoyable for the both of them.

Eventually: “You’ve seen, like, movies. Of kisses, right? Your lips need to be, like, wanting to be kissed.”

Blue closed her eyes, and Noah leaned over and kissed her.

He could tell when the whole ordeal snapped into place for her. Kissing Blue wasn’t terrible at all.

What a terrible weight for her to have to bear, Noah thought to himself as he wiped away tears from Blue’s face. Not being able to kiss anyone, and especially not being able to kiss the person she loves.

He just held her close, tried to use soothing words to make her feel better, and wished he wasn’t a ghost so that he actually do something for her.

 

The most recent person he had kissed was Adam, about a month ago. The kissing wasn't even Noah's suggestion, either.

Adam had come to him and said, "I need you to help me practice kissing."

Noah had stared at him blankly for a moment before Adam had continued, "I haven't ever kissed anyone before. And I want to kiss someone now. But I don't want to be bad at it."

“Okay, yeah sure. Makes a lot of sense. French kissing is a nightmare if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Adam was looking a little flushed and shifty-eyed, so Noah felt compelled to ask, “Does this have anything to do with everyone’s favorite angry, tattooed shithead?”

Even though he still couldn’t seem to look Noah in the eye, Adam flushed even darker. “Yeah. I’ve been thinking about some things, doing some research. I reckon that what I got with Ronan is something like a crush. And I reckon that ‘bisexual’ works better for me than ‘heterosexual’ these days.”

He punctuated his words with a tentative shrug that ended up looking more like a turtle retreating into its shell. Adam’s accent also made an appearance, his voice betraying his nerves despite the light tone he tried to inflect into his words.

Adam was probably really scared.

“Awesome! Good for you, what with figuring yourself out and all. It’s really cool that you told me. Coming out is scary, and I’m glad you trust me.”

Dropping his shoulders slightly, Adam smiled wryly. “Yeah. So, about the whole kissing thing, how exactly does that start?”

“It usually works better if there’s, like, casual contact before it.”

Noah put his hand on the side of Adam’s neck.

When they leaned in, Adam was really hesitant and overly gentle with his kiss. His hands hovered awkwardly in-between them, unsure of where they were supposed to go.

He ended up with quite a bit of practice, and left Noah with a much better idea of what he was supposed to be doing.

*****

All four of them were yelling about how he was targeting, and “it wasn’t fair”, and “Noah, you weren’t supposed to say anything”.

Noah just smirked, and said, “It’s not targeting, because I got all of you. Who’s next?”

They all continued to shoot him dirty looks as they settled down and got on with the game.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr at asexualrichardgansey


End file.
